Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Deering High School participated in Million Meals Maine (MMM), a fundraiser that supported a charity called Feed My Starving Children. Deering raised more than $2,000 to address food insecurity abroad but when the schools shut down due to COVID, the program it was intended for temporarily stopped providing services as well. This year, MMM gave permission for Deering to donate the money to a charity of choice, so sophomores and freshmen researched local programs that address food insecurity. They voted to donate the funds to Preble Street and Cultivating Community, giving a little more than $1,000 to each organization.

Cultivating Community’s mission is growing sustainable communities by expanding access to healthy, local food; empowering children, youth, and adults to play diverse roles in restoring the local, sustainable food systems; and modeling, teaching, and advocating for ecological food production. The mission of Preble Street is to provide services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger, and poverty, and to advocate for solutions to these problems.

Members of Deering’s student government recently presented checks to representatives from those organizations, as seen in the following photos:

Photo 1 (above): Pictured left to right are Jennifer Tibbals (from Preble St); sophomore Co-President Shay Rosenthal; and freshman class Co-Presidents Isabella Figdor and Violet Blum-Levine.
Photo 2: Pictured left to right are Yannick Bizimana (from Cultivating Community); freshman class Co-President Isabella Figdor; sophomore Co-President Shay Rosenthal, and freshman Co-President Violet Blum-Levine. 
*The photos were taken in front of a new mural painted by Deering seniors Nicole Quang and Matthea Lo-Sears as their capstone project.